Schizophrenia is a syndrome which encompasses a variety of mental symptoms like auditory hallucinations, paranoia, delusions, catatonia, bizarre behavior or emotional withdrawal. Schizophrenia affects about 1% of the total population and its economical as well as social burden on society are enormous. The onset of the disease occurs at an early age and thus patients typically need life-long medical and psychiatric supervision. Schizophrenia is, therefore, rated as one of the most costly diseases in the industrial world1.
There are various known risk factors associated with schizophrenia such as genetic predisposition, birth during winter and complications during pregnancy and birth. Viral infections and subsequent autoimmune reactions have also been proposed as possible causative factors2-4. The involvement of autoantibodies against platelets in schizophrenic patients was also shown as elevated levels of autoantibodies were detected in schizophrenic and demented patients as compared to control subjects, bipolar, depressed, personality disordered or schizoeffective patients5-6. Western Blot analysis revealed a pattern of platelet antigens recognized by autoantibodies obtained from schizophrenic patients which differed from that recognized by autoantibodies obtained from patients suffering from autoimmune thrombocytopenia and dementia7. The antigen bound specifically by autoantibodies obtained from schizophrenic patients has been characterized by its molecular weight.